New panel set up to expedite compensations to victims of political clashes

BANGKOK, January 11 (TNA) - Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit said on Wednesday that the government is setting up a sub-committee to look into how many people have died and wounded and become disabled from Thailand's political rallies during 2006-2010. Yongyuth, in his capacity as chief of a government committee tasked with coordinating and following up the implementation of proposals recommended by the government-appointed Truth for Reconciliation Commission (TRC), told reporters that the newly-set up sub-committee will also find out how long the wounded victims were hospitalized so that required procedures for paying them the official compensations can be expedited. Yongyuth insisted that the plan to pay compensation to victims of the country's political rallies, which ended in violent clashes between demonstrators and government security forces, will impartially benefit affected people of all groups, not only pro-government red-shirt people. The deputy premier's remarks followed the Thai Cabinet's approval of a 2-billion-baht fund on Tuesday to compensate victims of the political clashes of all groups during the four-year period, covering civilians, government security officers and even journalists. (TNA)